Fulham’s under 18s exited the FA Youth Cup this afternoon after a 3-0 defeat at Liverpool, despite having the better of the first half.
Ali Melloul’s youngsters dominated possession and created the clearer chances in the first 45 minutes but failed to take their opportunities and were punished by a ruthless Liverpool outfit after the interval. A lovely header from Lewis Koumas put the home side in front before a long-range strike by Kieran Morrison moments later gave the Londoners a mountain to climb. With Fulham having to chase the game, Jayden Danns added a third from distance to set up a quarter final meeting at either Sheffield United or Leeds United.
But the Reds had to weather a real storm to ensure they were level pegging at the break. Fulham pressed the home side ferociously from the outset and forced an error inside the first three minutes when Lemar Gordon latched onto a poor pass from Michael Laffey only to see his snapshot deflected wide. Aaron Loupalo-Bi showed plenty of confidence to dribble past three red shirts only to skew his finish from 20 yards off target before rounding the goalkeeper to fashion another sight of goal only for his scuffed shot to be blocked.
Fulham continued to pose a real threat with Ollie Gofford heading over from a brilliant cross by Jon Esenga and the midfielder was then denied from a one-on-one by a brilliant save from Kornel Misciur after being played in behind the Liverpool defence by a clever Gofford pass.
It was inevitable that the hosts would present more of a challenge after a half-time team talk from Marc Bridge-Wilkinson and so it proved. Trey Nyoni saw a shot bravely blocked by Luc de Fougerolles but the Reds turned the tie decisively in their favour shortly afterwards. Morrison produced a peach of a delivery from the right flank that was matched by a great header from Koumas, which gave Marco Underwood little chance.
The Fulham goalkeeper was quickly picking the ball out of his net again only seconds later when Morrison found the top corner with an unstoppable strike from twenty yards out. Danns then lofted in a third from 25 yards out, chipping the stranded Fulham goalkeeper, to put an unrealistic slant on the scoreline as Fulham faded late on.
LIVERPOOL UNDER 18s: Misciur, Davidson, Pinnington, Pitt, Nallo, Laffey (K. Kelly, 78), Kone-Doherty, Morrison, Danns (Pennington, 90+1), Nyoni, Koumas. Subs (not used): Morana, Enahoro-Marcus, Giblin, Gyimah, Figueroa.
GOALS: Koumas (56), Morrison (57), Danns (73).
FULHAM UNDER 18s: Underwood, De Jesus, Amissah, De Fougerolles, Esenga; Nwoko, King, Osmand; Gofford, Loupalo-Bi, Gordon. Subs (not used): Kaiser, Nsasi, Slade, Tabares, Quashie, Ali-Wahid, Olyott.
